GunLink

Forget the Rhetoric. Let’s Take a Look at the Cold, Hard Numbers

Every time some violent madman, such as the islamic terrorist who recently killed a club full of people in Orlando, happens to use a firearm to carry out their perverted mission, the anti-gun left intone their mantra of “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste” and spool up their rhetoric machine to incite fear and hand-wringing among the masses while they try to use emotion to push for new legislation. “Something must be done about guns!,” they shout. “Ban ‘assault rifles’!” “We have a serious gun problem!” But do we really? The short answer is no, and here’s why…

People die. That is how life works; it eventually draws to an end as the curtains close and we shuffle off this mortal coil. When people die, it is from a variety of causes. If you are into the macabre, try to catch some reruns of 1,000 Ways to Die – we will only be discussing this in the abstract.

FACT: More people have been shot and killed in Chicago so far this year than were killed by all types of rifles in all of 2014.

According to Oxford Dictionaries, we could have simply listed every distinct word in the English language and realized this same auspicious achievement. However, we like guns – and, if you are reading GunLink, you presumably have at least some passing interest in them as well – so we thought that everyone’s time would be better spent if we arranged a selection of those words in such a manner as to pique that interest.

GunLink Local Discussion Boards Get a Makeover

The shooting community, and Second Amendment advocates in general, have always been a relatively tight-knit group. It is always refreshing to see the camaraderie between the good, honest people from all walks of life who show up to big events like the NRA Annual Meetings or the biannual machine gun shoots at Knob Creek and Big Sandy or industry events like SHOT Show. That camaraderie is perhaps even more evident on a smaller scale such as on a competition circuit, shooting club, or informal get-together of friends participating in the shooting sports.

In the political realm, the phrase “grassroots” is often bandied about (despite its invasion by “astroturf” movements) because, realistically, concerned individuals working together to effect change is what brings about real legislative changes. This can be seen in gun-rights rallies, letter writing campaigns, and other local pushes to contact representatives to ensure that vox populi is heard. These days, it is easier than ever to connect, thanks to the internet.

The GunLink Forums has had state-by-state forums for a few years now. Those local discussion boards have served a number of purposes including, for several years, acting as an online rallying point for members of a national gun rights organization. During that period, the boards were largely limited to locating members in your area and chit-chat, even that of a local nature, was kept to a minimum.

The states’ forums have recently undergone another facelift with much of the old restrictions now removed. Under the new format, the local boards are open for any kind of discussion you like (within reason and within the general forum rules, of course). Open for discussion are all things relevant to members in your area, including shooting events, news, elections, firearm legislation, meetups, links to your buy/sell/trade listings in the GunLink Marketplace, and just about anything else.

This Monday – December 1st, 2015 – marks the 9th anniversary of #CyberMonday being a thing. Cyber Monday is a term dreamt up by some marketing team to boost sales in online stores hoping to compete with the brick-and-mortar boon of Black Friday. What that means in practice, though, is that Cyber Monday is the day when office productivity around the globe plummets as people who a) didn’t want to deal with Black Friday crowds and B) didn’t get the day off from work surf the web to find amazing deals.

More recent than Cyber Monday is #SmallBusinessSaturday – a day meant to promote the engine of the American economy: small businesses. Here at GunLink, we love deals, we love small businesses, and, doggone it, we love America, so we’re offering a special deal on listings in the GunLink Directory: $10 off a Gold level listing and $15 off of a Platinum level listing. These deals will only last through Tuesday, December 2nd, so act now!

The GunLink Directory is the original nucleus of the GunLink family of online firearms resources. Over the years, that family has grown, but the directory remains at the heart. The GunLink Directory lives up to its name, providing a listing of links to firearms-related businesses and other web resources – an important tool for business operators of all sizes in an age when more and more search engines, social networking sites, payment services, and online marketplaces are showing their anti-gun roots and disallowing businesses with any relationship to the firearms industry. Continue reading →

If you are reading this post, you obviously already know about the GunLink Blog. You might also visit the GunLink Forums to read or participate in discussions, firearms related or otherwise, with fellow firearms enthusiasts. But are you familiar with the original heart of GunLink?

GunLink’s origins (and name) come from the GunLink Directory – a yellow pages of sorts for firearms, hunting, shooting and gear related businesses. It is no secret that many popular search engines, social media outlets, auction sites and similar websites are rabidly anti-gun, so we wanted to provide an online resource to help firearms-friendly businesses connect with customers and potential customers. Thus, the GunLink Directory was born. Continue reading →

It is no secret that many companies are anti-gun. There are stories about PayPal freezing accounts used to purchase firearms accessories. eBay seems to selectively police what is and is not allowed for sale on their website on a whim. Amazon recently announced changes that will allow fewer types of firearms accessories to be listed for sale. Facebook disallows firearms related advertising and, along with Instagram, is cracking down on private sales of firearms. If you have ever tried to post wanted or for sale ads for firearms or accessories on Craig’s List, you know that they are almost immediately flagged and deleted.

Putting aside the politics and the theory that this is just more propaganda to demonize anything related to firearms, it makes it difficult to complete legitimate, individual, private sales of firearms and accessories. Let’s say you have a box of holsters you don’t use or a firearm you no longer shoot or magazines for a rifle you no longer own. How can you sell your items if you can not list them on eBay or Amazon to get widespread exposure or even Facebook or Craig’s List for the local crowd? This is a familiar, frustrating experience for many people in the market to buy or sell firearms and firearms related accessories.

All hope is not lost, however. The recently-opened GunLink Marketplace is a section of the online GunLink Forums with sections to post for sale, wanted and wanted to trade ads for legal transactions between private individuals. Forum members are able to post their buy/sell/trade announcements in the forums, communicate with the other parties to the transaction, view and leave feedback and more.

As a bonus, since the GunLink Marketplace is brand new, to get things started we are even offering an opportunity to win some prizes just for posting your ad. For a limited time, when you post a buy/sell/trade ad in the GunLink Marketplace, you will be entered for a chance to win some great prizes like firearm-related stickers and patches, knives, flash drives, paracord gear and more.